Coatlicue Girl
Gris Muñoz
|
The perfect blend of humor with a dash of melancholy, Muñoz's bilingual collection of poems and stories sheds light on growing up near the border, strong maternal familial ties, and nascent queer desire. The book seamlessly skips between poems and prose, English and Spanish. There are no rigid thematic section breaks like in many poetry collections. The first two poems are in Spanish and lament a disconnection, the author's status as close to Mexico but born in the US. In the US, "maíz" (corn) becomes "cornflais", Spanglish for cornflakes. Also, she feels shame about her "nariz Maya" and also that she only returns to Mexico to "andar por tus calles enviciada y tomada." These poems are followed by a short story in English, "Beer run," that depicts somewhat comically a pattern of crimes that affected a convenience store in El Paso. The young woman telling the story is able to identify a car parked outside said store at night with two men in it as likely to rob beer, and she defiantly tells them to wait until she has had a chance to buy a soda. Two key themes in both the stories and poems are sometimes supportive, sometimes conflictive mother-daughter relations and also passionate, romantic queer desire. In the story Manflowers, a single mother picks up a woman at a cowboy bar while reminiscing about her own mother derogatorily referring to lesbians as "manfloras." The poem Claudia is about two women lovers waking up in bed with their "legs entwined," one making espresso in her abue's antique tin. In both, the author grows to accept herself while harboring fear about the implications for conservative family members. |
The tension between following one's desires and the repercussions in a socially conservative midsize city is palpable throughout the collection. And the poems and stories that together stitch a brilliant, bilingual reflection on life along the border from a queer woman's perspective. The perfect blend of humor with a dash of melancholy, Muñoz's bilingual collection of poems and stories sheds light on growing up near the border, strong maternal familial ties, and nascent queer desire.
Gris Muñoz was recently named a finalist for the John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry by the Texas Institute of Letters. Her work has been highlighted by The Rumpus, Bitch Media and The Smithsonian Latino Center among others and she has most recently been featured by The Texas Book Festival, The Tamarindo Podcast, and the Latino Collection & Resource Center at San Antonio Public Library in collaboration with Texas Public Radio. She is Xicana of Apache descent.
Coatlicue Girl is a publication by Flower Song Books. Click here to purchase.
Coatlicue Girl is a publication by Flower Song Books. Click here to purchase.
Comment Box is loading comments...
|
|
